Trhas Tesfay

It was only recently I learned that in West Africa football is the dominant sport, but in East Africa, it's cycling.

Trhas Tesfay comes from Ethiopia, the mountainous northern part, and she is part of the East African cycling phenomenon. Her story is remarkable and that's why I think she deserves a thread here.

You can read about her in the links below, but in a nutshell this is her backstory.

Women are not much encouraged to race on bikes in her country, but nevertheless there are enough competitors to have a championship which Trhas won last year. As a result she was sent by the Ethiopian cycling body to represent the country in the world championships in Scotland last autumn.

Unfortunately no one at home seems to have realised that Heathrow is not close to Scotland and although she managed somehow to arrive, sho was too late to ride. The following day her Mother telephoned to say that since her Father and brother had just been arrested (politics, not crime) it would be best for her not to return.

I'm not clear how she got back to London, in spite of having very little money and no English (at the time she only spoke Trigigna, not a well know language here!), but she did. On the point of starvation she was taken in by a refugee charity (West London Welcome), who looked after her. It took some time to find anyone who could communicate, but eventually it was realised who she was and she then came under the wing of Jeremy Ford who is a very efficient activist in various African causes, including Team Africa Rising.

She is now a member of the Kingston Wheelers, has Alice Lethbridge as a coach and is beginning to find her feet on the Hillingdon circuit and elsewhere. With a racing weight of 47 Kilos she will surely prove to be a formidable climber.

There are a couple of pictures in my Pedal Club lunch report for April, plus another I will post shortly also, if you're interested there is this blog:
https://teamafricarising.org/teamtrhasblog/

Pedal Club Report:https://www.velouk.net/2024/05/01/news-pedal-club-lunch-april/

One more pic.

Unfortunately slightly out of focus which is the reason I didn't use it in the report, but it gives an idea of character.

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That's one helluva story!

It's a complete coincidence that this story (Guardian link) should be in the news the day after I posted this Trhas thread. I'm more used to living in the past than being cutting edge!

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/may/09/you-need-to-be-brave-tigrays-female-cyclists-ride-again-in-the-aftermath-of-war

Love this, hope she thrives!

Does anyone here still take Cycling Weekly?

If you do, you may have noticed that Ms. Tesfay has a double page spread in the current issue.

Well, you read it here first!

Trhas - First Win in Britain

I didn't think it would take very long! She won the 3/4 cat women's Via Criterium at Kings Cross - see her blog:

https://teamafricarising.org/teamtrhasblog/

As mentioned above, Trhas looks as though her main strength would be climbing, so she's not really in her element at Kings Cross, or Minet Park where she's done most of her racing so far.

She is scoring points, so once she is in the higher categories, she should get more chance to show off her ability as a grimpeuse (a lady climber)

What a great bit of news, thank you and chapeau and good luck to Trhas

she's not really in her element at Kings Cross

Well, there is the Col de Pentonville Road. :)

Second Cat.

I've just had the following message from my Team Africa Rising contact:

'Trhas has just been bumped up to second category due to her brilliant run of results'

She's featured in a piece in The Guardian today:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jul/16/free-to-run-asylum-seekers-dream-sporting-glory